The British Museum is Amazing

My wonderful, sweet, one-of-a-kind wife Suzie suggested that I have the day to myself today. Swallowing my guilt, I took her up on it, and did the one thing I absolutely wanted to do in London, which was to visit the British Museum. It did not disappoint; it was one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. The sheer volume of artifacts is hard to comprehend, and the cumulative […]

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Our Day in Warwick was … Mint

Fun day Sundayt, took the train from the Marylebone Station (love that name, Marylebone) this morning and traveled to the small town of Warwick, to meet the family who will be renting our house in Santa Rosa this fall. They suggested the kids would like to visit Warwick Castle, which dates from 1068 (history and more information about the castle is here). We got up very early and were out […]

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My Feet Hurt and I’m Getting Tired of My Kids (Warning, NSFW Picture, Too)

“What, so soon?” you may be asking.  “I mean, you only have the entire summer and then four more months after that to spend with the little darlings, right?” In fairness (to me), that’s probably just the jet lag talking, combined with tiredness after another go-go-go day, which included too much time stuffed into underground trains. It started off with the phone ringing when we were sound asleep.  I rolled […]

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Hey Cordel, I Found a New Sustainable Hand Dryer for You

At the London Science Museum, in the bathrooms, there are hand dryers that operate on the same principle as the drying element at the end of an automatic car wash. You push your wet hands all the way down, and then a very thin “blade” of hot air “strips” your hands of water as you pull them up and out. Not only cool in design, but unlike any other hand […]

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Random Walks and Rides through London

Jet lag was the theme of the day. We all awoke much too early, a little after 5, thinking it was later because it was so light, all of us groggy and grumpy. Suzie and I managed to convince the boys that we all needed a little more sleep, which worked well, since when we woke up about 3 hours later, we all felt much better, at least for a […]

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In London Tired but Happy

We had a long but uneventful trip, and I’m about to collapse into bed after being up for 32 hours straight, minus the fitful sleep (if you can call it that) on the airplane.  Highlights and comments in brief. 1.  The SFO International Terminal is wonderful.  We are always way too punctual, so we had 4 hours to kill, and it was a treat to walk around a space so […]

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On Our Way

We are on our way, finally.  I’m posting this from the Airporter bus, lurching through traffic on 101.  Nifty that Sonic.net provides free WiFi on the bus. We are exhausted and we’ve just started.  We seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take to finish everything we had to do before leaving, which included not just packing, but also getting the house in shape for visitors.  In my usual […]

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The Worst Part About Leaving

Maybe the worst part of going away is the thought of being away from our dog for 6-plus months.  So the kids convinced me to video her and post the clip on YouTube so we’d be able to see her if we got lonely for her in Paris.  So eat your heart out other dog owners — voici le plus bon chien Elsie: You won’t want to watch the whole […]

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No Grace, No Perspective, No Class, No Clue

I have watched with fascination and repulsion as Hillary Clinton and her smarmy, thug-like spokesmen (yes, men; don’t you think it’s odd that all of her main mouthpieces are men?) continue to fight on and on and on in a cause that is almost certainly lost, apparently content to risk harming the Democrats ultimate nominee for an increasingly tiny chance at victory.  If it wasn’t clear before, it is now […]

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